The Orange Tree’s new production is Terence Rattigan’s penultimate play In Praise of Love and Amelia Sears’s revival is exquisite. Its protagonists are Sebastian Cruttwell (Dominic Rowan) – champagne socialist manchild and superstar book critic – and his Estonian wife Lydia (Claire Price). As an intelligence officer in postwar Berlin, Sebastian married Lydia to get her out from behind the Iron Curtain, with little expectation that they’d stay together. But they have, rubbing along eccentrically for 25 years. It plays out as a melancholy farce: Lydia has discovered she’s dying, and doesn’t want to tell Sebastian, reasoning he’s too hapless to be able to cope with it. It’s an elegant elegy for Rattigan’s own war-time generation.
It’s the first proper weekend of June, which means we can start filling up our sweet days off with all those things we love about summer in London: beer garden hangs, alfresco dining, picnics in the park, open-air theatre and cinema and lido visits are on the horizon – (just keep your fingers crossed for good weather). To ease us into the new season, London’s ever-inventive events organisers have put on a smorgasbord of things to do in the capital.
This weekend look out for the inaugural SXSW London, the famous Austin music, film and media festival is coming to the capital with plenty of talks, panels, film screenings and music across a whole host of venues. There’s also brilliant theatre on the cards as Breach Theatre’s verbatim musical ‘After the Act’ about the heinous ’80s legislation Section 28 has its funniest and sharpest run at the Royal Court Theatre. Plus, party with Massive Attack and Jamie XX at at brand new Vicky Park fest Lido Festival.
On top of that, there’s also some annual big hitters to mark in your diary this year, including the ever-brilliant Lambeth Country Show, London Open Gardens weekend giving you the chance to mosey around some of the city’s secret green spaces and The Great Exhibition Road Festival where some of the most illustrious museums in London will be entertaining punters with live experiments, immersive installations and talks. What are you waiting for?
Start planning: here’s our roundup of the 25 best things to do in London in 2025
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